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JULY 200O
Monday July 31
STREET
BALLET: An orphanage in Nairobi is trying to make street kids' lives
a little better. "As well as being given an education, they are offered the
opportunity to learn ballet - not a dance form much practised in the region."
BBC 07/30/00
NO
RIGHT TO DANCE: Martha Graham heir withdraws license for Martha Graham
Company to perform the late choreographer's work. CBC 07/30/00
Sunday July 30
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FATHER
OF MODERN DANCE: This year marks the 50th anniversary of Nijinsky's death.
His choreography is a study in grace and brutality, in his "madness" he invented
modern dance, he was 50 years ahead of his time, his life was an erotic
spectacle - narcissistic, instinctive, free - and his work captured the emerging
rhythm of mind for a generation that was heading into the fearsome carnival of
the Great War. But Nijinsky was a sleek gazelle trotting round the edge of a
precipice; he was a primitive: how did he come to be the patron saint of modern
art? The Telegraph (London)
07/30/00
Friday July 28
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WHO
OWNS DANCE: The board of the beleaguered Martha Graham company wonders if
Graham's work is really protected by copyright. They may go to court to find
out. "The implications of such a ruling would be huge. Choreography was not
explicitly protected by copyright law until 1978, so most works created before
then would be affected. A ruling that there is no copyright protection would
mean that anyone could perform such early Graham works as her 1944 masterpiece,
'Appalachian Spring.' "
Washington Post
07/28/00
Wednesday July 26
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WHO OWNS
A DANCE? Increasing sophistication about preserving the legacy of dance is
creating a welter of problems for dance companies wishing to revive older
choreography. “There was a time when the chief impediment to reviving dances was
that the work was out of fashion. Now, death and the notion of ownership have
seemingly created even more insurmountable problems.” New
York Times 07/26/00
(one-time
registration required for entry)
Tuesday July 25
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DANCE
THIS: Some 700 people from 20 dance organizations around America gathered in
Washington DC last week to talk about their art. "As it happened,
marginalization and globalization arguably formed the twin themes of the
conference - especially the virtual invisibility of dance in American culture,
but also the limited voice within dance of various constituencies such as
African Americans, gay people and world dance advocates."
Los
Angeles Times 07/25/00
Monday July 24
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FACE-SAVERS
ALL AROUND: The National Ballet of Canada's settlement with fired dancer
Kimberly Glasco was a face-saving measure all around. Glasco could have danced
again, but chose not to. And the National Ballet, "clinging to the red herring
with which it had sought to deflect public opinion from the main issue in
Glasco's unlawful dismissal suit, claims the settlement 'upholds the principle
of artistic freedom and authority.' Freedom to do what? Treat dancers any way it
likes in total disregard of labour law?
National Post 07/24/00
Sunday July 23
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RIGHTEOUS
SEPARATION: The National Ballet of Canada's settlement of the suit with
dancer Kimberly Glasco for $1 million was a good result. The situation had been
at impass. "Ms. Glasco thought she was the next Karen Kain, an opinion not
shared by others. And the ballet forgot that, in Canada, you can't just fire
people at will. You need experts. You need procedures. You need outplacement
counsellors."
Toronto
Globe and Mail 07/22/00
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THE
BALANCHINE LEGACY: "There are plenty of cognoscenti in the US who believe
that Peter Martins is making a bad job of honouring the god [Balanchine], and
they regularly say so in print, describing him as a man of little taste and much
ambition. There are others who argue that he has, in fact, done well, his energy
shown by the 100 ballets performed in the 50th anniversary season last year, and
his refusal to allow NYCB to become a museum company, which would have been
anathema to Balanchine himself."
The Telegraph (London) 07/23/00
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BODY
BEAUTIFUL: Artists have been grappling with issues of beauty since there
were first artists. "Who defines the body beautiful, and how has this definition
been affected by feminism, multiculturalism, mass media and new technologies? If
beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what kinds of images still have the power
to produce such sensory experience?" New
York Times 07/23/00 (one-time registration required for entry)
Friday July 21
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BALLET
COMPANY SETTLES SUIT WITH DANCER: The National Ballet of Canada and dancer
Kimberly Glasco have reached a settlement on her charges of wrongful dismissal.
Glasco gets money and won't return to the company as a judge had ordered. Glasco
sued for unlawful dismissal when the National Ballet decided not to renew her
contract after it expired in June last year. Glasco claimed she'd been fired
illegally for speaking out as a dancer representative on the board of directors
against artistic director James Kudelka's new Swan Lake."
CBC 07/20/00
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CLASSIC
FILL-IN:
The Bolshoi's performance of
Balanchine's "Symphony in C," Wednesday night at Lincoln Center began a day
earlier with a backstage drama. The first movement of the classic was led on
Wednesday night by Anastasia Goriacheva, who was celebrating her 19th birthday.
Yet until Tuesday, she had never even rehearsed the role; when another of the
company's rising young stars, injured herself, Ms. Goriacheva was plucked out of
the corps to replace her and put into nonstop rehearsal mode." New
York Times 07/21/00 (one-time registration required for entry)
Thursday July 20
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THE
BOLSHOI BALLET IS BACK in New York after a 10-year absence. “By any cultural
standard the return is a major event. The engagement is sold out: the company's
mystique remains intact. It is no secret, however, that the Bolshoi has had its
ups and downs. Not only do aesthetics change, but reality intrudes as well. More
than 20 years of turmoil within the company, a turnover in directors and an
adjustment to a society itself in turmoil will take its toll. New York Times
07/20/00 (one-time registration required for entry)
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A TWINKLE IN YOUR
EYE, A TWINKLE IN YOUR TOE: In 1932 the Nicholas brothers were the youngest
dancers ever to showcase at the Cotton Club and the first performers allowed to
mix with a white audience. They danced with George Balanchine, Gene Kelly, and
can count Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov as some of their biggest fans.
After a life of tap dancing around racial barriers, chasing women, and
approaching life with gusto, Harold Nicholas died this month at age 79. LA Weekly 07/20/00
July Tuesday July
18
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QUEEN
OF THE KIROV: "Altynai Asylmuratova, the reigning ballerina of the Kirov,
has always been a special performer, a deeply intense dancer who can squeeze
every nuance out of a drama. She gives of herself so completely that it is not
surprising to hear that she finds today's cool aesthetic a little too contrived
and calculated." The Times
(London) 07/18/00
Sunday July 16
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A HOME FOR
DANCE: Jacob's Pillow began as a modest showcase for the choreography of
modern dance pioneer Ted Shawn. Now it is one of the most intense hotbeds of
international dance activity in the world, each summer presenting "ballet to
butoh, modern dance to hip-hop. With companies from the United States, France,
Japan, Ireland, Africa, Sweden, Brazil, Spain, Canada, and The Netherlands, the
festival's current season is one of its most diverse to date." Christian Science Monitor 07/16/00
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BALLET THAT'S
BIG: The Bolshoi takes America by storm. But this is a different Bolshoi
than the one we've seen before. "It is a different company now. Each time
chooses its own dancers."
New York Times 07/16/00
(one-time registration
required for entry)
Friday July 14
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"I
OFFERED TO BE PEACEMAKER:
"Barry Fischer envisioned an intimate program
for a few dozen high school and college students from around the country. He
imagined a place where they could take classes in the rigorous Graham technique
and learn some of her repertoire. The three-week program, scheduled to start
this Sunday, was to culminate with a performance of excerpts of Graham works
danced by members of the Martha Graham Ensemble, a junior company." And then
came this week's call for a boycott from unemployed Graham dancers. Washington Post 07/14/00
Wednesday July 12
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GRAHAM
DANCERS SPEAK OUT:
The Martha Graham Company dispute has turned
nasty, with the company's board and its artistic director publicly feuding. And
the dancers? "Since the board voted to close shop, they have had no work, no pay
and no daily classes to maintain the technique so crucial to performing Graham's
dances. But they had mostly kept quiet about it. Until now. In a statement
issued this week, the dancers are calling for a boycott of the same choreography
that they have striven to perfect." Washington Post 07/12/00
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BEING POLITICAL BY
BEING APOLITICAL:
"Two years ago, Bill T. Jones was approached by
Arena de le Sol in Bologna, Italy, to make a dance depicting the influence of
Latin culture in the New World. Though confronted with issues of colonization
and what Jones describes as cultural 'collision,' he decided to make a poetic
rather than a political response to the unjust historical truths surrounding
these native communities. 'Ultimately, I'm trying to enter this on the level of
culture and art,' he says. 'I'm trying to tell the story as I see it, and what
that looked like in terms of music.' " Village Voice
07/11/00
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RUSSIA'S
FINEST: "The atmosphere has been electrifying" throughout the Kirov Ballet's
recent five-week run at Covent Garden. "Three times in the 20th century the
Russians have come to teach us a lesson in the lively arts. What has sustained
them through the century is a peculiar blend of collective outlook and blind
conviction." The Telegraph
(London) 07/12/00
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THE QUESTIONABLE
TOURIST BALLETS: St. Petersburg is the home of great ballet, home of famed
Russian dance companies. "Unfortunately, virtually every package tour of St.
Petersburg feels the cultural necessity of including a ballet performance in its
offering - rather as Paris tours once felt equally compelled to provide the
Folies Bergere, or Le Moulin Rouge and Pigalle. But the tourists' ballets, as I
recently discovered to my cost, are occasionally questionable. New York Post 07/12/00
Monday July 10
Sunday July 9
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MONEYDANCE:
"As a cultural phenomenon, Riverdance has been closely parsed from top to
bottom, hailed by some as an expression of a confidently globe-conquering new
Ireland, dismissed by others as a pile of Celtic clichés. What has been ignored,
however, is the gargantuan financial muscle that promises to make Riverdance the
country's biggest cultural export. The three Riverdance shows touring the world,
along with their myriad merchandising spin-offs, have grossed an estimated £½
billion to date." The
Sunday Times 07/09/00
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NEW
RELEASE: "Dancers are flocking to classes in a number of 'body therapies' or
holistic systems that explore different ways of moving effortlessly and
efficiently. Many of them started as a response to performance strain and
injury. But now 'release technique' has begun to fuel an aesthetic shift that
could be the next great swerve for modern and postmodern dance." Los Angeles Times 07/09/00
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INCIPIENT
ILLNESS: Shutting down the venerable Martha Graham Dance Company a few weeks
ago was only another example of the difficult time dance is having in America.
Everywhere dance companies are floundering. Cleveland Plain Dealer
07/09/00
Friday July 7
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STARVATION SUIT: Just days after a
15-year British study and a controversial new book were released both alleging
that young ballet dancers’ training promotes eating disorders, the mother of
former Boston Ballet dancer Heidi Guenther has filed a lawsuit against the
company and its artistic director for being “recklessly and grossly negligent”
in asking Guenther to lose weight to join the corps de ballet. Guenther died of
anorexia nervosa in 1997 at age 22, weighing just 93 pounds. National
Post 07/07/00
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JEDI
DANCER: Filmmaker George Lucas has hired San Francisco choreographer Michael
Smuin to choreograph scenes for the next "Star Wars" movie. "George envisioned
the saber fight to be more dancelike this time,'' said Smuin. "It took three
people to accomplish this: a sword master, a Cirque du Soleil acrobat and a
dancer with the Australia Ballet." San Francisco Chronicle 07/07/00
Thursday July 6
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TWYLA THARP'S NEW COMPANY: Tired of the administrative and financial burdens, twelve years ago
Twyla Tharp dissolved her dance company and took to the road freelancing. Now
she's back with a new company. New York Times 07/06/00 (one-time registration
required for entry)
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DISHONORING
MARTHA GRAHAM: If you thought things were bleak for the Martha Graham
Company las month when it disbanded, they're even worse now. "The company board
has changed the locks on the warehouse where it keeps its costumes and scenery
out of fear that its former artistic director would take them. That artistic
director, Ron Protas, whom Graham herself chose to carry on her work, operates
by cell phone from a location he refuses to reveal and is working to prevent the
company from performing any of Graham's dances." New York
Times 07/06/00 (one-time registration required for
entry)
Sunday July 2
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CITY BALLET'S ROAD TO
NOWHERE: New York City Ballet has invested heavily in its Diamond Project to
create new works. That should be cause for celebration. "What I feel instead is
a profound sense of futility, watching a company that, despite the richest
resources and the most compelling reasons to maintain its former glory, cannot
find a viable contemporary identity and is, instead, steadfastly marching down a
path to nowhere." New York Magazine 07/02/00
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A HEROIC
SEASON: American Ballet Theatre survived an uncommon number of injuries and
produced a season of surprises. New York Times 07/02/00 (one-time registration required for entry)
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